Erin Patterson trial: Alleged killer cook’s ‘deviated’, ‘bland’ beef Wellington recipe that killed three

Accused mushroom killer Erin Patterson has revealed the moment her ex-husband demanded she explain ‘how you poisoned my parents’ during bombshell evidence at her triple murder trial.

The 50-year-old also detailed the “special” beef Wellington she prepared for her family, revealing she deviated from the recipe and added dried mushrooms - including some death cap mushrooms she foraged for -- before destroying evidence relating to the fatal lunch.

It was the third day the alleged triple murderer had given evidence at the Supreme Court trial in the regional Victoria town of Morwell, a case that has not just gripped the world, but that has seen keen observers travel to the remote case to see the accused testimony. Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three murders and one attempted murder over the lunch she served to parents in-law Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66.

A lie-fuelled invitation and a pantry fix to her ‘bland’ mushroom mix

Ms Patterson admitted in the lead-up to the fatal beef Wellington lunch on Saturday July 29, 2023, at her Leongatha home she “lied” to her family, making them believe she had found “a lump”, had received “a needle biopsy” and was scheduled to have an MRI, none of which was true.

“I shouldn’t have done it,” a tearful Ms Patterson told the court.

Her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, who Ms Patterson feared was becoming distant, followed up on the false health concerns, to which the accused killer cook replied saying she would “talk more about it” when she saw them in person.

Ms Patterson became emotional when talking about these lies, saying she was “planning on having gastric bypass surgery” and that her falsehood could allow her family to continue supporting her without knowing the truth.

“I went through quite a long process of deciding what to cook,” Ms Patterson said when asked about the men for the fatal lunch.

“I remembered on really important occasions my mum would cook beef Wellington as a kid.

To guide her first attempt, Ms Patterson turned to her hard copy cookbook, RecipeTin Eats by Nagu Maehashi.

It was a recipe Ms Patterson said she “roughly” followed, admitting she had to “make some deviations”.

“I couldn’t find the big log that the recipe called for, the tenderloin, so I had to use individual steaks,” Ms Patterson told the court.

“I had to adapt.”

Ms Patterson described in detail her “very long” preparation of a mushroom duxelles, a key part of the beef Wellington recipe.

She said she used a “low heat” to “get almost all of the water out” of the mushrooms, a step the would prevent her pastry from getting “soggy”.

“I tasted it a few times,” she told the court. “It seemed a little bland to me. I decided to put in the dried mushrooms I bought from the grocer that I still had in the pantry.”

Ms Patterson said now thought “foraged” mushrooms were among the “dried mushrooms” from the Asian grocer. That mushroom mix was “chopped” up and sprinkled into her duxelles.

Her ex-partner Simon Patterson cancelled on the lunch at the last minute, saying he felt “too uncomfortable”.

Ms Patterson said she replied with the intent of making him “feel bad” and claimed she might not be able to host a lunch again due to her made-up medical issues.

Overreating and vomiting after lunch

Parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, as well as brother and sister--in-law Ian and Heather Wilkinson arrived for lunch at 12.30pm at Erin Patterson’s Leogatha home.

They came armed with a “nice” fruit platter and an “orange cake” which later became key to the accused’s evidence.

Ms Patterson’s children were not present as she had arranged for them to go to a movie.

After the four guests explored parts of Ms Patterson’s home, including the “great” pantry where dried mushrooms were stored, the time came for the alleged killer cook to plate up her beef Wellington.

“I put out the plates and started serving the mash, then the Wellingtons and finally the beans,” Ms Patterson told the court.

Ms Patterson served five beef Wellingtons on plates — black, white and one red — denying any were grey, as the sole-surviving guest Ian Wilkinson previously told the court. A sixth beef Wellington was placed in the fridge for Ms Patterson to “worry about” later.

Guests were told to “grab a plate” and lunch began.

The accused admitted she told her guests about a made up ovarian cancer “scare”, something she now says she is “not proud of”.

“I led them to believe that I might need to receive some treatment,” she said, adding the guests showed “showed a lot of compassion” and eventually suggested they “pray for Erin”.

Her ex-partner arrived to the home after lunch with the kids, with the family then mingling as Ms Patterson cleaned her kitchen, something that gave her a moment to eat “all” of the remaining orange cake that had been brought for dessert.

Feeling ashamed and sick, after eating the beef Wellington lunch and the orange cake, Ms Patterson told the court that she took herself to a bathroom and made herself sick, vomiting the contents of her stomach.

That night, Ms Patterson claimed she took her son to a Subway restaurant, however, denied video evidence of her car type and model leaving the restaurant for a few minutes before returning was her.

Ms Patterson told the court she had loose bowel movements the night of the beef Wellington lunch, later taking Imodium as she could not sleep. The next morning, she skipped church due to her condition. Later she would learn from her ex-partner that her in-laws were in hospital receiving fluids.

Ms Patterson went along with her parental duties, including a drive to her son’s flying lesson. On the trip, she claimed she pulled over to relieve her diarrhoea in “a bush”, cleaning herself with tissues and putting them in “dog poo bags”. She claims she later disposed of these as she briefly entered a BP service station.

When she returned home, she scraped mushrooms and pastry off the beef Wellington leftovers. Despite all her lunch guests being unwell, she served the leftovers to her kids for dinner.

‘We’ve been waiting for you’

By the Monday, Ms Patterson decided to go to hospital for “fluids”. When she arrived, medical staff told her “we’ve been waiting for you”, she told the court.

She claimed she was grilled about her beef Wellington, asked she she got her ingredients and told she may have been exposed to “death cap mushrooms”.

Medical staff told Ms Patterson she would need to be taken to a hospital in Melbourne by ambulance, however, she delayed the trip, saying she needed to “go home and do a few things before that happens”.

She told the court she thought her daughter had a ballet commitment that night and that she needed to feed animals and put “lambs away” to protect them from foxes.

When she came back, she was asked about her children and if they ate the lunch. When she explained she had fed them leftovers, the children’s father agreed to collect them from school and take them to hospital for assessment.

Ms Patterson recalled speaking to police over the phone while still in Leongatha, telling them the “the leftover they were after” had been put in the bin. She gave them the “gate code” and told them to check the inside and outdoor bins.

The accused mushroom killer said she became “loopy” in the ambulance when given different medications including fentanyl. However by the next morning, now the Tuesday, she said she felt “a lot better”.

Authorities ask question, Erin Patterson destroys evidence

Ms Patterson recalled increased questions from authorities from the Tuesday, including calls from the health department and eventually child protective services.

She said that made her “very anxious”, but claimed to tell authorities “the truth”, at least at that point.

While speaking with her children and her ex-partner at the Monash Hospital in Melbourne, Ms Patterson explained to her children that the lunch she cooked “might have made people unwell”.

Confused, the kids reminded their mother they were not at the lunch, with her then explaining how she scraped mushrooms off the leftovers to feed to them.

Mushrooms became a heated topic for the family, including Ms Patterson’s food dehydrator which she had used for “experiments”. Ms Patterson claims it was at that moment that she realised foraged mushrooms may have made it into her meal.

“Is that how you poisoned my parents, using that dehydrator?” Mr Patterson said to Ms Patterson according the her evidence.

“Of course not,” she said to him, before “what if” thoughts about death cap mushrooms ending up in her meal started to further permeate her mind. “Maybe that happened,” she told the court.

After leaving hospital, Ms Patterson explained she took the children to school, before making a move to destroy evidence she felt could tie her to death cap mushroom poisoning.

“I took the dehydrator to the tip,” Ms Patterson admitted.

“Child protection were coming to my house. I was scared of the conversation that might flow. I was scared they were going to blame me… for making everyone sick. I was scared they would remove the children,” she said.

Despite destroying evidence and fearing foraged mushrooms may have made their way into the beef Wellington alongside “pungent” mushrooms from a mystery Asian grocer, the health department and virologist were not told about the dehydrator.

Ms Patterson will return to give evidence on Thursday.

The trial continues.